Friendship is a golden band
Linking life with life,
Heart to heart, and hand to hand,
Antidote to strife.

Friendship is a silken cord
Beautiful and strong,
Guarding, by each kindly word,
Loving hearts from wrong.

Friendship is a beacon-light
On life’s rocky shore,
Brightest in our darkest night
When the breakers roar.

Friendship is an iron shield
Where life’s cruel darts
Ever may be forced to yield
Ere they wound true hearts.

Friendship is the gift of God
Freely to us given,
As the flowers that gem the sod,
Or the light of heaven!

When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don’t stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven’t hoed,
And shout from where I am, ‘What is it?’
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.

I am for frank explanations with friends in case of affronts
sometimes save a perishing friendship;
sometimes they even place it on a firmer basis than before.
Secret discontent always end badly.

And by the way,
we ought to remember that the word friendship applies to
relationships in the family quite as much as with outsiders.

Somebody once said that love may not be
any part of friendship
but friendship must always
exist for love to be happy.

Wise words about what friendship is and is not. Love in a friendship is a two way street.
Let the verses be ones that
remind you about loving a friend!

The love of friendship should be gratuitous.
You ought not to have
or to love a friend for what he will give you.

If you love him for the reason that
he will supply you with money or some other temporal favor,
you love the gift rather than him.

A friend should be loved freely for himself,
and not for anything else

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

How bright it gleams
With its illusions,
aspirations,
dreams!

Book of beginnings.
Story without end.
Each maid a heroine
And each man
A friend!

In the pathway of life,
Mid its trials and strife,
There’s a motto to you I commend:
In life’s ups and its downs,
In its crosses or crowns,
You must never go back on a friend!

Thou your friends may be few,
Let them feel that in you
And your word they can ever depend;
To preserve your good name
From contumely and shame
You must scorn to go back on a friend!

There are times when you can’t
Keep engagements you want;
Don’t neglect explanations to send;
Just as true as you live,
They will freely forgive
And not say you went back on a friend!

Should a friend be in need
Of advice or kind deed,
Don’t begrudge him your comfort to lend;
He will bless you at last,
When his troubles are past
In adversity stand by your friend!

Thou the seas ebb and flow,
Let your friends ever know,
You are faithful and true to the end;
Should misfortune betide,
They will stand by your side,
For YOU never went back on a friend!

Like a rosebud opening in spring
Thy name is soft and sweet;
Filling the heart with rapturous throbs
When thou art by.

Like the dew on the morning flowers
Before the sun’s rays fall,
Love and friendship hover around us
When thou art nigh.

The duties of friendship to perform,
Will keep our thoughts wide awake;
Make life true and warm,
For friendship’s sake.

Cursed is he that makes envy,
Lies, tattles and fraternity break;
Speak in praise and speak the truth,
For friendship’s sake.

Love warms and never alarms,
Sweet as lilies of the lake;
Row your boat and gather charms.
For friendship’s sake.

If peace and harmony through human regard,
We desire to make;
We will work if it be hard;
For friendship’s sake.

In pursuit and plod for wealth,
Let honesty hold the stake;
Do not hate the man of stealth,
For friendship’s sake.

Live upright, honest and fair,
Give rather than take;
In brotherly love do you share.
For friendship’s sake.

Be a friend. You don’t need money:
Just a disposition sunny;
Just the wish to help another
Get along some way or other….
Read the complete poem, Be A Friend

I’d like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me;
I’d like to be the help that you’ve been always glad to be;
I’d like to mean as much to you each minute of the day
As you have meant, old friend of mine, to me along the way…
Read more A Friend’s Greeting

If nobody smiled and nobody cheered and nobody helped us along,
If each every minute looked after himself and good things all went to the strong,
If nobody cared just a little for you, and nobody thought about me,
And we stood all alone to the battle of life, what a dreary old world it would be!
More verses The Making Of Friends

The applicant must be rather old,
In order to be fitted to give advice
A limited amount of it wisely;

And at the same time rather young,
In order to receive it in liberal quantity
And in a meek frame of mind.

He must be of medium height, intellectually, and
In the enjoyment of robust spiritual health.
A written guarantee must be given of freedom
From all contagious defects of character!